Complete Outsource Workforce - Possible AND Profitable?

@MalBryc

I'd be quite interested to hear what you get back - as I'm in the same boat as you.

Gary

Profitability would depend on your fees for clients vs what you pay your team. But keep in mind building a team of talented outsourcers will take time don't expect to build a solid team right away.

Outsource it;s the way to go.Focus on getting more clients on the line and leave the fulfilling the service to a team of outsources you manage.This way your your clients data base will increase faster, your profits will increase(not per client, but on all of them) and now you have 10 times more clients to up-sell other services.
most of the services can be outsource here on WF if you do an little research and fins reliable suppliers.
I would add Mobile Website Design to the list of services too if I were you , it's in the same line.

Good luck in your journey.

It's absolutely profitable but your sales have to obviously generate a profit while completely outsourcing and if your fees are not high enough because your scared to charge what your services are worth then no it won't be profitable.

So find providers of those services, figure out how much it would cost to outsource what you sell....and add whatever margin you want so you can make money.

It's a great business model. That's what I've done for the past 3 years now. It's all about hiring the right talent. Of course you'll end up hiring deadbeats here and there that can't even show up for work. But when you find those great employees overseas you gotta treat them good and make sure they are happy. You are exactly right by wanting to focus on growing your business and not doing the design and services yourself. You can either be a brick layer or you can be the architect. I choose to be the architect and it sounds like you are seeing the big picture.

It`s possible, just hard to find reliable people for the job.

Outsourcing can definitely be profitable. In fact you find a lot of outsourcing success stories out there of business owners who were able to expand their business and build more businesses. The trick is to see outsourcing as an investment in your business. You have to take time to find good talent, you have to pay your people well and treat them properly; you have to learn to maximize the potential of your team without overwhelming them.

I think the first step is to develop a system of doing things that is predictable and repeatable. Then as you go along, it can be fine tuned. I'd first hire a virtual assistant, probably someone local, like a college educated, tech savvy, stay-at-home mom to act as a project manager. Then you layout the scope of the project and let the VA run with it.

Build up that relationship so you have trust in their competency and ability to complete projects timely and with excellence. Manage the manager so to speak. My wife is a VA in another industry and she's vital to the day to day of her boss's company.

The book you want to read is EMyth Manager by Michael Gerber.

Be careful. Outsourcing is very addictive.

Outsource your next web design job. See if you like the profit margin.

I have a mostly outsourced team and I've been very happy with that set up. We do local SEO for American companies but I have contractors from around the world. It was a lot of trial and error to set things up the right way (the way where it is no a nightmare and makes me a nice profit.) Here are my tips:

1) Consider time zones. Know that if you go across the globe you will be up at 3am talking to your contractors.

2) Consider language barriers. Can you communicate effectively with your contractor? How much is enough? Make it task specific: my content contractors need native English while web researchers/designers don't need that level.

3) Consider the country/culture. Might seem like a non issue but as a woman there were contractors that didn't take me seriously for cultural reasons. There are also different cultural standards of what "on time" means. Example: My culture, Mexican culture is very laid back when it comes to being on time, starting on time, deadlines. My local contractors have a hard time adjusting sometimes to the more rigid American pace.

4) Consider how you will monitor progress. We use Hubstaff, it takes screen shots and monitors key strokes and mouse clicks. Its tempting to get distracted when you are working from home I also do lots of checklists with clear deadlines.

My number one tip for US based entrepreneurs that are interested in outsourcing is to consider candidates from the Caribbean countries. I've had great luck with contractors from Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad. Good grasp of technology, excellent English, good internet access/speed (trust me that's crucial) and still very affordable labor. You can afford to pay them what is a very nice wage for where they are living and still save a lot on labor costs. Because I do believe that outsourced workers should make a good wage for their work. Keeps them loyal and it's the right thing to do. HTH

Is it profitable? Hey Mal that's up to you, you set the prices.
understand the metrics, all the costs involved including having spare ££££ for the times you get let down whilst building up the loyal team, there will be times you HAVE to get something done now due to being let down by an outsourcer and you WILL have to pay over the odds to acheive that and continue the great customer service you will be delivering, so those sort of things need to be factored in too , plus the associated costs (time especially) of finding, developing and trusting each outsourcer.